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![The Fiver | Mollycoddled divas not having to play any more than one replay](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/b8784bf19aed2dd3d88150381c9a9a8dd34f0a10/328_1046_2886_1732/master/2886.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctZGVmYXVsdC5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=15b792036742fd57d15d1cf19b9e2059)
With so many managers complaining about how often the players on their football teams are forced to play football these days, The Fiver can’t help but yearn for the good old days when FA Cup ties were replayed indefinitely, for as long as it took before one of the teams involved eventually prevailed. In 1971, the amateur players of Alvechurch finally beat Oxford City after the two sides met six times across three weeks – on Saturday, Tuesday, Monday, Wednesday, Saturday, Monday – in their own and assorted other grounds, with four of the matches going to extra-time. Nearly all the players involved had full-time jobs and their attempts to qualify for the first round proper were also punctuated by league games. And do you know what? Rather than cry The Fiver a river, they just got on with it.